[ 3 min read ]

This day probably pales in comparison to yesterday in terms of photo opportunities. I wrote ‘probably’ because I might have missed something. I’m a beginner.

Realized today how great Vivian Maier was at spotting photo opportunities. I want to develop her level of attention.

Also realized I need to be patient and learn to go against my assumptions.

Were people pissed off when she photographed them without their permission (after realizing she did that is)? Bet she didn’t always ask their permission beforehand - in most cases it would make zero sense (for the photo). Some of them must have given her their permission (portraits, facing the camera).

The advantage of holding an iPod Touch, instead of a regular camera, is that people don’t always know that I’m shooting photos. Can I do it? Can I take their photos and not tell them? How about people being shown on TV or in vlogs? Most of them never granted their permission and they are in those footages. Most of them are excited about this fact.

Asking their permission when you want to take a close-up? Totally. The photo will probably be much better because you do it openly and don’t need to rush or hide the fact. Asking their permission when you want to take a photo of people walking or standing in the streets and are part of the scenery? That’s not necessary in my opinion, and an obstacle to what might otherwise have been a great photo. What’s interesting is how few people would oppose being photographed from a distance (them being part of the scenery, not paralysed, not very shy, yielding their right for privacy) vs. them being portrayed (close-ups, paralysed, shy or very shy, protecting their right for privacy).

Viewed some more of Maier’s photos. Learned from her. Was excited to see her color photos.

Progress on my second book. One hour worth of editing. It isn’t progressing at a pace I thought it would. This is something I need to take into consideration next time I’m going to publish a book, which will be soon after I will have published this one. I just can’t do it for more than an hour and a half at a time. It gets boring soon, this working on this existing stuff. Especially when I already said what I intended to say and need to go over the same shit again and nothing changes. I prefer producing original content over then editing it.